1. Technical Field
The technical field relates to presenting information via receiving devices and, more particularly, to apparatus, systems and methods for communicating messages for presentation.
2. Description of Related Art
Receiving devices are operable to receive programming content from a program distributor. The received programming content is then presented on a presentation device. At times, it is desirable to present a message. Such messages may be used to impart information to a viewer of the presentation device.
Receiving devices include some type of memory which stores information pertaining to the characteristics of the receiving device and the programming content. For example, during a boot-up or a start process, the receiving device memory includes sufficient information to enable the receiving device to acquire information from a program distributor such that the receiving device becomes operational. Also, the received information may be used to generate an electronic programming guide (EPG).
Additionally, other types of information may reside in the receiving device memory. For example, a plurality of predefined messages may reside in the memory. Location of the predefined messages in the memory may be indexed or identified by logical and/or physical address location information. An example predefined message may indicate to a viewer that an account balance is past due and that payment should be made to avoid a service interruption.
However, the use of predefined messages resident in the receiving device memory has several disadvantages. One disadvantage is that because of the limited capacity of the receiving device memory, the number and/or size of the fixed messages that may be stored in the receiving device memory is limited. Further, once a predefined message is stored into the receiving device memory, the predefined message cannot be easily changed.